


The Day Certain Worlds Collide

by artsyspikedhair



Series: And Things Change For Better And For Worse [4]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - America, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, lesgles and musichetta are siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 13:54:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5628949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyspikedhair/pseuds/artsyspikedhair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Grantaire is gossiping in P-E, an ugly secret gets discovered, and a new club was started that had food.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Day Certain Worlds Collide

Grantaire ended up in Joly and the Eagle's P-E class. This was a good thing, because the three boys were allowed to walk around the track during P-E instead of participating in the stupid games everyone else did. This was likely because of Joly's mysterious leg problem (Grantaire was never bothered enough to ask what it was, though he suspected amputation was involved), and the Eagle's ridiculously good lying skills, not to mention the school's fear that making Joly walk alone would be "promoting antisocial behavior". So P-E was basically a gossip session. 

"You guys will not believe who ended up in my Child Development class..." Joly began, smiling largely. 

"Let me guess... my sister?" the Eagle 'guessed', already knowing Musichetta's schedule. He had checked it out that morning to make sure he didn't have any classes with her. His luck was surprisingly good, because he didn't. However, listening to Joly drool over her wasn't exactly easy.

"How'd you know?! Yes, the fabulous, older and more mature than me Musichetta was in my Child Development class... We could end up having to raise a baby egg together!" Joly sighed, thinking of the project that he had dreamed of all of middle school. Ensuring the safety of an object was the first step to ensuring the safety of a person. 

"Hey, you know how I was telling you I'd never fall in love earlier today?" Grantaire ventured, unsure whether mentioning Enjolras so early in the year would lead him to a lifetime of teasing. 

"You're now agog and aghast over some girl with a rack, just like Joly over here?" Eagle said grumpily. His headache had come back. 

"Musichetta is more than some girl with a rack! You shouldn't be talking that way about your sister and my future wife!" 

The Eagle rolled his eyes as Grantaire told them about his new love life. "She actually doesn't have any rack at all. But her hair is glorious, and her eyes could give me a heart attack..." Grantaire wasn't sure if Enjolras was a girl, but he knew better than to say that in front of his friends. The Eagle might be cool with it, but Joly was the straightest of the straight guys as far as Grantaire knew. 

Class moved quickly, as Joly waxed poetic over Musichetta and Grantaire pulled at his shirt sleeves. The Eagle made some quips that left the three laughing, but all in all it was talk for talk's sake. 

Grantaire had Math next, and he was in the bottom class, the one known as "College Prep" in hopes that using the word College would help people forget that it moved slower than the other classes. His was going to be a class of goof-offs, Grantaire knew because he was one himself. 

After math, he had first lunch because he somehow bullshitted his way into Honors physics. Neither of his friends were in his lunch, so he just sat at a empty table. Then a girl he didn't know asked him if he could sit with her. He liked the fact that she asked, so he said yes. 

"I'm Cosette." 

"R." Grantaire said, unwilling to give his entire first name to a girl he didn't know very well. 

"So this school is pretty different from middle school." he said, trying to make conversation. 

"I went to a Catholic school. So yeah, it's different. A lot more public displays of affectation." 

"Oh. Cool." Grantaire said, taking a bite of his pizza. 

"My dad's a substitute, in case you ever have him. He's Mr. Valjean." 

"Cool." Grantaire said again, unsure of anything he had in common with this girl. Then, as he was taking another bite of pizza, his shirt sleeve came up a bit. 

"What's on your wrist?" Cosette asked innocently. 

Grantaire finished chewing. "What do you mean what's on my wrist?" he said, obviously not as oblivious or nonchalant as he was trying to seem. Inside it felt like his heart was a ticking bomb. 

"That bandage on your wrist. What happened? It seems like on odd place to accidentally cut yourself." Cosette, sweet innocent Cosette, had no idea about the certain things that people do to themselves on purpose. 

"Nothing happened. I, uh, I have to go." Grantaire said, grabbing his backpack and running out of the cafeteria to the hallway. 

He found some nice corner near his Physics class to finish his pizza, hopefully believing nobody would disturb him. He was wrong. A girl with light brown hair and a nose that had clearly been broken multiple times showed up. 

"Can I talk to you?" she asked. 

"Why?" Grantaire glared at her, almost expecting her to be one of Cosette's friends, sent to ensure he wouldn't do anything else that would send him to hell. Grantaire didn't know what Catholics thought of fuck-ups like him. Self-mutilation likely isn't talked about in the Bible much. Only suicide is, because _all life is sacred. _ __Bullshit, to Grantaire. If his life is so sacred why was it being threatened by his father so often, just because he'll never grow up to be a goddamned banker?! Bullshit, that's what religion was.__

"'Cause I saw you talking to Cosette and I want to find out what you guys talked about. My name's Eponine, by the way. Eponine Thenardier." She thought maybe throwing out a name might scare the boy into answering. 

"I've heard of you. Your father used to own a liquor store. My dad used to get vodka from him. Anyway, we didn't talk about much. Just she talked really, about going to Catholic school and her father being a substitute teacher." 

"Oh. Okay. Don't tell her I said anything, okay?" 

"Of course I won't. Your stalkerish ways can be confessed on your own time. Why do you care anyway, got some sort of crush or something?" 

"No!" Eponine insisted, before deciding to trust the scarred ugly boy. "I have a crush on a junior. His name's Marius." Just then Grantaire looked at his watch

"Ah, I see. Well, anyway, I've got class and you do too." 

"We're headed to the same place. By the way, are you going to the Friends of the Abased club? It's tomorrow during J Block, and you could make some friends there. There's free food too, that's the only reason I'm going." 

"Sure, I'll go." The two walked into Physics, both slightly scared of what might come, Eponine because she was unsure whether to trust Grantaire, Grantaire because he sucked at math and physics probably involved math. 


End file.
